PLAYER #105 - BOBBY KUNTZ (1956-61)

Ever since imports started coming into the CFL in large numbers in the 1950's, there has been a common cry among Canadian players that they have not been respected.

As one of the top Canadian players to ever play in the CFL, Bobby Kuntz felt he deserved to be compensated as such. After winning the CFL's most outstanding Canadian award in 1961, Kuntz briefly contemplated retirement to look after his family's business, called Kuntz Electroplating, after the death of his brother Dave.

But the native of Kitchener, Ontario relented when he saw the Argos training nearby at the University of Waterloo, and went to Argo president Lew Hayman with one condition of returning: boost his salary from $11,000 to $15,000, which Kuntz felt was reasonable since high-priced imports like "Cookie" Gilchrist and Tobin Rote were earning $22,000 and $35,000, respectively.

Hayman's reply, according to Globe and Mail reporter Gord Walker, was: "I think you had better stay retired."

This exchange incensed Kuntz, and feeling betrayed himself, he did what all Argo fans would view as the ultimate in treason: he joined the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. "I said to myself, 'They don't need me, but now I want to play against these guys,' so I called Jake Gaudaur in Hamilton," said Kuntz. "(Gaudaur) was president and general manager of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I told him if he'd make a deal for me, I'd play for the same amount of money I got last year."

Gaudaur couldn't believe his luck in acquiring the hard-hitting, aggressive Kuntz, whom previous Argo coaches Hampton Pool and Lou Agase had named "A Sputnik Named Desire" and "Crunchmore" because of his all-out efforts and devastating ability to punish people. Only 5-foot-11 and 180 pounds or so, Kuntz played linebacker and running back at a level much bigger than he actually was, and former Montreal coach Perry Moss once said "if Kuntz had Cookie Gilchrist's size, they'd have to outlaw him from the game."

His 100 per cent, all-out style was best exemplified during a game against Hamilton in 1957, when Kuntz dove several feet in the air in an attempt to block a punt, a sequence that Pool had called "the single greatest effort I've ever seen a man make in a football game... He's so high in the air, it's unbelievable. If I were to build a Big Four team from all the present players, I would pick Sam Etcheverry first. Then, I would pick Bobby Kuntz. He could make any football team on nothing but desire."

While he had a lot of great personal moments in an Argo uniform, accomplishments which earned him mention on the all-time Argo team of the modern era (1945-73) at the linebacker position, the teams he played on were known for their heartbreaking losses. Particularly painful were the 1960 playoff loss to Ottawa on Bobby Simpson's "Sleeper Play", and the 1961 Eastern final defeat against Hamilton, when the Boatmen blew an 18-point first game lead in the two-game total points series.

Kuntz finally achieved his deserved team success in his five year period (1962-66) with Hamilton, when they won two Grey Cups.